A lifestye is liveable

I used to think that when relating to weight loss and dieting (or rather changing your diet) and making lifestyle changes that it was something liveable not loveable.  When I was in crisis mode and gaining weight and trying and failing to get back on track I would say to myself "liveable, not loveable".  But that thinking is flawed because you have to love your new lifestyle or it won't stick.  So many people want to desperately lose weight as fast as they can, and believe me I've been there and I still want to see the scale going down more often than not.  But what makes the scale go down fast is not necessarily fun, motivating, and long lasting.  Who says you can't go out and have fun while losing weight?  It's all about making choices.  Choosing when to have a large meal, learning when you need to cut back, participating in life without going overboard.  You will never get away from food, its impossible, social events will almost always involve food, family get-togethers involve food, it's everywhere!  Finding an enjoyable lifestyle is about learning when to indulge and when to say no.

For instance at the daycare at the gym they have a basket of suckers out.  At the post office, they have candy out, at the bank they have suckers, at the grocery store they have food samples out.  I have learned that in these situations I am not missing out on any fun if I say no to eating these foods.  I only sample food at the grocery store now if I am seriously thinking of buying what they are sampling, whereas before I would just try it because it was there for the trying.  (Seriously, on a Saturday at Costco you could probably eat an extra 500 calories in samples!)  However, there are occasions where it is okay to indulge and you should because it's a part of life.  Today my sister texted me "Hey!  I get out of school at 12 noon today, want to meet up for lunch?)  I was planning on going home and making a green smoothie for lunch (I was just leaving the gym when I got her text) but I decided sure!  It would be lots of fun to go out for lunch with my sister.  We went to Red Robin.  Red Robin is notorious for having high calorie foods, if you don't know how to navigate any menu you can get caught up spending all your calories in one shot.  But I had my handy dandy My Fitness Pal ready.  I didn't go with a salad but I didn't go with the 1,000 calorie hamburger either.  The trick to enjoying eating out is to substitute what you usually order and like, with something else that you also really like.  You don't want eating out to be miserable, it should be fun and enjoyable.  I haven't been to Red Robin in 2 years and I love their sweet potato fries.  So I ordered them and ate a whole basket, MFP says it's about 550 calories.  Okay, so I tracked it.  As I was looking at the menu I knew I wasn't going to go with a traditional hamburger because they are so high in calories, but I didn't want a salad or a wrap so I looked at the grilled chicken sandwiches.  Some of them came up as 800 calories in MFP, but I found a really yummy sounding one called Bruschetta chicken sandwich that was only 600 calories.  That was manageable.  I stuck with one serving of fries and ate my sandwich and it was amazing and awesome and fun!  I tracked everything.  I had already done Zumba and I had already swam, so I even had some extra calories from exercise if I wanted to use them.  I felt good about my choices, and enjoyed my lunch.  My food choices actually kept me feeling full for the rest of the day and I ate a banana, and some veggies for dinner ha!  I was so full I didn't need anything else.  My total calories for the day: 1650.  That's it!  I was able to eat out, enjoy myself, track my food, and stay on track.  Many times in the past I would go out to eat and say "oh well, I know I've blown it because I'm eating out so now I just might as well start over tomorrow" and instead of eating light the rest of the day, I would pig out on everything I could get ahold of.  That thinking is so messed up, and yet so many of us are plagued with it.  We are looking for excuses to go back to old habits and to eat unhealthy food, and that is why we give in.


So to end this post, I would now say that losing weight is not about finding a lifestyle that is liveable but not loveable (who wants to live and be miserable?  Isn't that why we are on this journey in the first place?)  It's about finding a lifestyle that is liveable AND loveable.

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